User:Sustainabledevelopmentstudent/Watts Rising

Watts is one of the most dense communities in Los Angeles, California with 41,000 people living within 2.12 square miles that is characterized by low-performing schools, inadequate health care, poor housing and high unemployment rates. Watts is made up of 70% Latino and 28% African American individuals. 30% of the community are considered to live in poverty. The goal of Watts Rising is to change these statistics through collaboration with the residents and investing in the environment, jobs and education.

The Mission and Purpose of Watts Rising

Watts Rising - Transformative Community Climate is located in the heart of Watts, Los Angeles. In a community that is marked by historical injustices and systemic neglect, Watts Rising stands as a demonstration to the power of social activism and community-driven initiatives. This essay will explore the mission and purpose of Watts Rising, and ultimately shed light on its transformative efforts to address the pressing challenges of climate change, environmental justice, and community development.

Watts is a neighborhood identified with the struggle for civil rights and social equity, and has long grappled with a multitude of socio-economic and environmental challenges. This neighborhood is one that has been historically marginalized and underserved in which the residents of Watts face disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards, substandard housing, and limited access to essential resources. The collaborative Watts Rising is one that is led by community organizations, local leaders, and residents, all who share a vision of promoting sustainable development and environmental justice in the Watts neighborhood.

The Watts Rising mission encompasses several key objectives: environmental justice, climate resilience, economic empowerment, and community engagement. For starters, Watts Rising aims to address the environmental injustices that have troubled the community for years on end. Through continuous advocating for clean air, safe drinking water, and the remediation of environmental hazards, it becomes evident Watts Risings mission to guarantee that all inhabitants have equal access to a healthy and sustainable environment. Moving on to climate resilience, Watts Rising works to showcase the unfair and disproportionate impact of climate change on vulnerable communities as well as what needs to be done to solve these issues. By prioritizing climate resilience and adaptation strategies, Watts Rising is aiming to mitigate the impacts that climate change is having on the residents of Watts. A mission like this involves community engagement, education, and infrastructure improvements, and with this Watts Rising can commit to transformative change. There is then the objective of economic empowerment; the promotion of economic empowerment and community wealth-building initiatives is a key factor to the Watts Rising mission. This collaborative seeks to create economic opportunities for the residents of Watts, and they do so by encouraging local entrepreneurship, workforce development, and equitable access to green jobs. These opportunities essentially inspire the residents and will help to play a part in the future well-being and success of the community. Lastly, there is an emphasis placed on community engagement that Watts Rising prioritizes as an essential component of their mission. Being an organization that is composed of over 40 different partnerships, one can see the importance of collective action and community resilience. Overall there is a clear mission to bring power to their community, encourage resilience, and the ability to enact evolutionary change.

There is a clear purpose to Watts Rising which is shown through their initiatives to improve the health of Watts inhabitants and environmental and economic outcomes (LA2050). The purpose behind Watts Rising goes way beyond any intermediate goals of environmental justice. Instead there is a vision that encapsulates a social transformation and community empowerment. There is a mission and purpose to challenge the systemic injustices and inequalities that have existed in the neighborhood of Watts for decades. Watts Rising acts as a beacon of hope for the people of Watts, and embodies the strength and adaptability of a neighborhood that will continue to show that they are more than the challenges they face.

Methods

Watts Rising’s work began just over 10 years ago with the Transformative Climate Communities (TCC) grant from the State of California’s Strategic Growth Council. This grant funds community led development and infrastructure projects intended to achieve major environmental, health and economic benefits in California’s most disadvantaged communities. Along with the over $32 million supplied by this grant, Watts Rising receives funding from the Choice Neighborhood and Implementation (CNI) grant given by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development along with other public and private funders.

Made up of a collective of over 40 community and government organizations, Watts Rising’s main goal is to ensure that Watts residents are at the center of every project. Many strategies are used to achieve this goal including regular meetings and outreach activities, job training in the fields of clean energy and green fields, anti-displacement services, and direct benefits such as solar panels, energy retrofits, trees and, and small urban farms. An agreement to hire locally has already resulted in the employment of over 200 residents for construction and labor related to the projects.

Three working groups also meet monthly to discuss collective goals and action plans. The data working group’s purpose is to ensure an ethical, integral and participatory data collection process to assess the progress of projects and whether or not they have met the grant’s goals. The displacement avoidance working group focuses on current Watts residents’ benefits from the projects. This working group connects homeowners, renters and businesses to resources that can help reduce household expenses, increase income and business profitability, build wealth as well as increase housing access and security. The community engagement working group works to ensure that residents are actively involved in the planning and execution of projects.

By March 2024, Watts Rising will have completed 24 projects that collectively result in the development of five miles of bike lanes, 54 new solar roofs, over four acres of urban agriculture land, diversion of 300 tons of food waste, 289 new energy efficient homes, two new public parks, over 3000 trees planted, and 216 new affordable rental units

Organizations Involved

Watts Rising is a collaborative effort between 40 organizations in the Los Angeles Area. The project is lead by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles and the Mayor's Office of Economic Opportunity. The partners on the project are the Council District 15's Office, the Liberty Hill Foundation, the East Side Riders Bike Club, the Michaels Organization, LADOT, Green Commuter, Watts Labor Community Action Committee, Habitat for Humanity, GRID Alternatives LA, Grant Housing and Economic Development Corp, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Watts Century Latino Organization, Urban Peace Institute, Streets LA, We Care Outreach Ministries, LA Metro, TreePeople, North East Trees, Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, Charles Drew University, LAUSD, ThinkWatts, Red Eye, Sharefest, Primestor, Morning Star Baptist Church, Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative, City of Los Angeles Business Source Harbor Watts Region and Strength Based Community Changed.

Tree People is a non-profit organization started by a teenager, Andy Lipkis, over 50 years ago. The organization works with communities in Los Angeles, California to improve through greenery, water security and education to inspire youth to be involved in environmental conservation. They have worked with over 3 million people and planted more than 3 million trees. As a part of Watts Rising, Tree People has given 1700 trees to residents of Watts, planted 850 shade providing trees in public spaces, strategically planted trees to encourage the use of outdoor space and provide shade to cool highly utilized areas of the community. They are currently almost done with the planting phase of the project and are moving into the tree maintenance phase.

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is the largest public school district in Los Angeles County including 1,302 schools. LAUSD participates in Watts Rising through the Watts Cool Schools-Green Schools project. The project originated in April 2019 and was projected to be completed in January of 2023. The project was led by LAUSD in tandem with Tree People. This project is meant to make four elementary schools cooler through planting trees, using cool coat paint, cool pavement and removing asphalt. There will be the creation of an Eco-Club that helps to involve students through education and participation in the project. The project also includes a public presentation and a community sustainability workshop at each school to further educate the community. This project is expected in its lifetime to reduce GHG emissions by 220 MTCO₂e, provide jobs and plant 112 trees.

Another organization involved in the Watts Rising Project is Habitat for Humanity. Habitat for Humanity is a United States based nonprofit that works to internationally improve and provide affordable housing. It was founded in 1976. This organization is involved in the Energy Efficiency portion of the Watts Rising Project. The goal is to provide updates for 300 homes  by installing low-flow faucets and shower heads, LED lighting, window unit HVAC system replacements, smart thermostats, etc. The project is expected to reduce GHG emissions by 1,994 MTCO2e, save $517,204 in energy costs and provide jobs.

Progress Report

Since the projects start in April of 2019, the Transformative Climate Communities program set five goals: 1. Reduce local sources of air pollution. 2. Improve public health outcomes and address health disparities. 3. prevent displacement and its impact on physical and mental health. 4. Address and mitigate non-greenhouse gas emissions sources and exposure to pollution. 5. Create safe and secure public spaces.

The project outputs included the addition of 10 electric buses to the public transportation fleet, rescuing and donating 324 tons of edible food, planting 2,750 trees to provide shade for buildings and sidewalks, installing 154 kW of solar power on affordable housing units, and training 40 residents in solar photovoltaic installation and 30 residents in EV-related topics. Additionally, the project involved the construction of 5.2 miles of bike lanes, 1.15 miles of a cultural trail, and improvements to sidewalks. It also saw to the creation of 81 new housing units, with 80 of them designated as affordable.

The project successfully implemented numerous sustainability measures, including over 300 energy efficiency upgrades and 33 retrofit projects in single-family homes. Solar panels totaling 35.91 kW were installed on 11 homes, and 6 level 2 electric vehicle chargers and 3 level 3 chargers were installed. Construction on an affordable housing project began in summer 2021. MudTown Farms and the Watts Healing Tech Garden redistributed significant amounts of food directly to residents. Additionally, 4 residents completed a growers certificate program, and 5 local youths were trained and hired by North East Trees.

Within the community engagement goals, the Watts Healing Tech Garden hosted 2 community gardening days and 1 harvest festival. Weigand Elementary Urban Trees/Rain Gardens organized 17 community outreach and engagement events conducted in both English and Spanish. Freedom Tree Park arranged 3 community events for Jordan Downs residents, park users, and Watts families in English and Spanish to inform the development and design of the park. The Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities project conducted 7 Bicycle Education and Safety Training classes.